Full coverage: ATF's Fast and Furious scandal

ATF’s Fast and Furious scandalA federal operation dubbed Fast and Furious allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so the arms could be traced to the higher echelons of Mexican drug cartels. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the operation, has lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent arrives for a memorial service for slain comrade Brian Terry on Jan. 21, 2011, in Tucson. Terry was killed during a shootout the month before near the U.S.-Mexico Border. (John Moore / Getty Images)

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., under fire for his Justice Department's Operation Fast and Furious, accused his Republican congressional critics of politicizing the failed gun-tracking program and warned that many of the more than 2,000 lost firearms will continue to show up on the southwest border...

Atty. Gen. Eric Holder on Tuesday called a botched gun-tracking scheme hatched by officials with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on the Southwest border “flawed in its concept, and flawed in its execution” in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In a stinging rebuke of the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric H. Holder, an amendment to prevent the Justice Department from conducting any future gun-tracking operations such as the failed "Fast and Furious" program in the future sailed unanimously through the Senate Tuesday.